It is commonplace for doors of apartments, houses, and businesses to have, in addition to the usual lock associated with the door-knob, one or more additional locks. These additional locks are usually mounted a few inches above the door-knob and often include a dead bolt lock and/or a chain lock. These various additional locks are somewhat unsightly. Patents have issued for devices that cover a lock. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,888,096 issued June 10, 1975 to Steven J. Huas and entitled Lock-Up Housing for Door Lock. Other patents include:
U.S. Pat. No., 714,686, issued Dec. 2, 1902 to W. G. Flint, entitled Show Case.
U.S. Pat. No., 4,226,104 issued Oct. 7, 1980 to Melvin D. Oliver, entitled Removable Protector for Locks.
U.S. Pat. No., 3,952,564, issued Apr. 27, 1976, to Peter Maines, entitled Protective Device for Door Knobs and the Like.
U.S. Pat. No., 3,414,306 issued Dec. 3, 1968 to A. A. Bernstein entitled Door Knob, Lock and Slide Bolt Protector.
U.S. Pat. No., 3,245,240 issued Apr. 12, 1966 to W. E. De Forrest, entitled Knob Protector.
Present dead bolt locks are subject to problems in that they may be opened during the night by persons having master keys, by persons experienced in picking locks, etc. A patent has issued which attempts to solve this problem by placing a jamming device between the handle of the lock and the shaft of the door-knob, see U.S. Pat. No., 4,185,483, issued Jan. 29, 1980, to Stephanie Lupton et al. entitled Door Locking Device.